The Olympic Games: Future Media Challenges

The Olympic Games is the most widely covered and televised sporting event that we have in the world.  In the year 2000, for example, it was aired in over 220 different countries and territories! This was made possible by an ever expanding use of technology.  However, it is this same technology that threatens the very popularity of the Olympic Games!  This becomes none more evident than when we look at the challenges posed to the upcoming 2012 games in London in light of the current media and global sports climate.

While the Olympics coverage has spread to more and more areas of the globe, so too has the coverage of many other sports.  Through much of the 20th century, the Olympics was the only real sporting event that would have been considered global by much of the world's population.  This is now no longer the case.  We are witnessing the ever-increasing popularity of the Super Bowl, World Cup, Golf Majors, Tennis Majors, the World Basketball Championships, etc.  So the uniqueness of the Olympics as a global spectacle is no longer what it once was.  This increase in the number of global sporting events has also perhaps diminished the importance of some of the Olympic sports as many world titles are also hashed out in these other global sporting events.

Another challenge the Olympics face is that of a shrinking world.  The Olympics have always been looked at as an event that brought the world together.  Yet now, through communication, we are able to easily interact with people all over the globe. Transatlantic flights are hourly afterthoughts now. In addition, there is such an emphasis put on diversity in much of the world nowadays, that a growing number of people have become very familiar with many other cultures and countries.  In this way, the aura of the Olympics has decreased because there is less differentiation in cultures.  And with as much political dissent (and the coverage of it) that occurs in this day and age, it can be argued that there is not the same strong identity with one's country for some people that there was 30 or 40 years ago. 

The Olympics have also been watered down by the media outlets covering them.  Because of the incredibly large licensing fees that are in place in order for media outlets to cover the games, there is a lot of pressure on those same outlets to recoup the money spent on those fees.  So many networks are now steering towards entertaining their given audiences.  Tape delays and melodrama have become so commonplace that the live, in the moment, feelings of competition is gone.  Many fans, myself being one of them, prefer to follow the events via live game stats to try and recapture the heat of the moment competitive feeling.  There is no escaping the results in today's world of communication so the results of an event that is being aired 15 hours after it has taken place are spoiled, and anti-climatic.  With the growing costs of covering the Olympics, many networks are covering more and more of the Olympics from the confines of their own studios.  SO not only has the live feel of much of the Olympics been compromised, but so too has the solid Olympic feel of them as much of the coverage is from studios that are thousands of miles from  the events that are being covered.

World Cup Soccer is just one of many global sporting events wth which the Olympics must compete with

The last real challenge facing the 2012 games and those going forward is the practicality.  There is so much  media, fanfare, traffic, cost, etc. associated with the Olympics that there are a limited number of countries that can even consider hosting the Games.  And hosting the games is still a logistical nightmare for those countries that can do it.

When considering all of the above factors, the Olympics  and those covering it have a lot to overcome in order to remain even nearly as globally relevant as they have been.  They have to be able to convey to the people that the Olympics are still the superior global sporting event when compared the all aforementioned ones.  They must walk that fine line of entertaining without losing the competitive flair of the games and do so within the confines of their cost perimeters. in a shrinking world, they have to put more of an emphasis on diplomacy.  As much of the cultural and rivalries among  nations have diminished, the networks have to somehow paint a picture of a friendly yet fierce competitive atmosphere.  And it may sound simple, but with the almost unimaginable logistical challenges facing London and future Olympic cities, they must do everything they can in the way of  prepare.  The Olympics and its associated media outlets certainly have their work cut out for them.  And when the opening ceremonies commence in just 17 short months, it will be interesting to see if all of those involved are up to the challenge!